"I
could see this
film being
more powerful when viewed during the war."

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

A far-fetched war thriller shot during the waning
days of
WW11, that
was entertaining but not convincing. The plotline was
revised to keep
it
topical, as it became the first Hollywood film to
address the use of
the
A-bomb on Japan. Originally, First Yank into Tokyo
centered on the
invention
of a new kind of gun. It stars the ill-fated Tom Neal,
who was to make
one great film Detour (1945) and then watch his
blossoming career
self-destruct.
He got into a fistfight with Franchot Tone over
actress Barbara Payton,
an incident the studio held him responsible for and
which caused him to
stop getting starring roles. Payton afterwards married
Tone, which
lasted
for only a month, and then returned to Neal. But when
Neal was
convicted
of involuntary manslaughter for killing his third
wife, Gail Evatt, and
served six years in prison, his career came to an end.
Neal died in
1972
of natural causes, eight months after his release.

Major Steve Ross (Tom Neal) is an ace Army squadron
leader
pilot,
who was born and raised in Japan by his businessman
father and speaks a
fluent Japanese. He asks his attractive Army nurse
girlfriend Abby
Drake
(Barbara Hale) to marry him, but she can't because
she's shipping out
to
the Philippines the next day. Ross later hears that
she was killed by
the
Japanese in Manila. So when he's called to Washington
and asked to
volunteer
for a dangerous secret undercover assignment that will
help shorten the
war and save American lives, Ross figures he has
nothing to lose
anymore
and eagerly volunteers for an unusual assignment that
asks a lot of
him.
He's to go to a Tokyo PoW concentration camp disguised
as a
battle-fatigued
war hero sergeant who is coming home for rest, and has
been reassigned
to work in the camp. His undercover assignment is to
free an American
atomic
scientist, Lewis Jardine (Cramer), who was captured
after his plane
crashed.
The Japs don't realize how important a prisoner they
have, thinking
he's
merely an engineer. But the scientist has in his head
the secrets of
making
an atomic bomb. In order to completely fool the enemy,
Ross undergoes
an
irreversible plastic surgery to make him look
Oriental. He's then
smuggled
into Tokyo.

Ross is aided by his contact man at the camp, a
Korean
orderly named
Haan-Soo (Keye Luke, he would play in Charlie Chan
films). Ross
discovers
Jardine in the hospital at the camp, as he's being
treated for black
fever
and has developed malnutrition. There are also two
coincidences that
should
really stretch one's sense of disbelief: the camp's
head nurse taking
care
of the American prisoners is none other than Abby
Drake and the PoW
camp
commandant is his college roommate, Colonel Okanura
(Loo), a
mean-spirited
and vindictive person who never forgets a face.
Because of his facial
make-over,
Abby fails to recognize him, though she notices
there's something odd
about
him. The same goes for Okanura, who thinks he met him
before but can't
figure out where.

Warning: Spoiler to follow in
the
next paragraph.

The potboiler builds up tension. Ross plans Abby's
and
Jardine's
escape, while he heroically decides to stay behind to
fight off the
Japs
so they can escape. Ross would rather get killed than
have Abby marry
someone
who looks like a Jap.

Gordon Douglas' direction is sure-handed. I could
see this
film being
perceived as more powerful when viewed during the war.
The film's end
shows
actual newsreel footage of nuclear bombings from
Pathe.